New mass spectrometers have arrived

It was close. In the end, 2.8 cm remained in the lift and 4 cm in the laboratory door to transport the two new Thermo Orbitrap Astral and Thermo Orbitrap Ascend mass spectrometers to the MS laboratory. But both systems and the associated chromatography systems arrived safely thanks to the work of the logistics company BM Logistik and are now awaiting installation. This will likely take place in the middle/end of November, so we can look forward to an early Christmas present.

The Orbitrap Ascend is the latest version of Thermo Fisher's Tribrid series, a class of mass spectrometers characterised by the combination of a quadrupole and Orbitrap mass analyser and a linear ion trap. It offers the highest methodological flexibility and is therefore very well suited for academic research. The Orbitrap Ascend supplied is also equipped with the ‘structural biology’ option, which enables high resolution analysis of high molecular weight ions such as intact protein complexes.

The Orbitrap Astral is the first commercial instrument to use the new Astral Analyzer, a modified time-of-flight analyser cleverly designed to provide an effective path of approximately 30 metres for ion trajectories. In addition to the Astral analyser, an Orbitrap analyser is also installed so that it is possible to switch flexibly between high resolution and extremely high throughput. The Orbitrap Astral is expected to significantly increase sample throughput in the laboratory, enabling more replicates, more biological conditions and therefore better scientific conclusions.